Category: Announcements

2023 MGHA Preseason – Sept 24th Sign Up

Reminder: Help Hockey Happen – update your profile with interest to be a captain, coach, or gameday volunteer. We still need over 140 players to fill this out – help us wrangle y’all cats <3.


Rink A: Goalie Evaluations

Sign up for one session, based on the level(s) you want to play in this year.

  • 5:00 – 5:40 PM: L1 or L2
  • 5:40 – 6:20 PM: L2
  • 6:20 – 7:00 PM: L2 or L3

Rink B: L3 Prospective Skater Evaluations

Sign up for one session if you want to play in L3 this year. We want to evaluate all players together this year.

  • 5:00 – 5:20 PM: Session 1
  • 5:20 – 5:40 PM: Session 2
  • 5:40 – 6:00 PM: Session 3
  • 6:00 – 6:20 PM: Session 4
  • 6:30 – 7:00 PM: Session 5

Rink A L1 Clinics – Beginner Skills

  • 7:10 – 8:10 PM: New-to-MGHA Clinic, led by Mark N, Amanda T, Zach S, Doug L, John S
  • 8:20 – 9:20 PM: Returning L1 Player Clinic, led by Mark N, Ted J, Amanda T, Kriona H

Rink B: L2 Clinics – Intermediate Skills

  • 7:10 – 8:10 PM: L2 Early Clinic, led by Alanna F, Greta L, Paul W, Trisha A, Leif B
  • 8:20 – 9:20 PM: L2 Late Clinic, led by Alanna F, Greta L, Alex K, David H, Trisha A, Leif B

Help Evals Happen – 30 1.5h shifts to fill

Sign up for a volunteer shift (4:30-6, 6-7:15) to note results for an evaluation stations – show up on time and you’ll get direct guidance on what to do. If we don’t have enough people sign up for shifts, we will staff folks based on their responses to their profile preference.

Need help?

  • If you cannot attend evaluations, sign up for the general makeup evals scheduled for October 8th OR contact hops@madisongayhockey.org if you cannot make any time work with your schedule.
  • If you have issues with the signups, please contact website@madisongayhockey.org.
  • If you have questions about which sessions to sign up for, check with your mentor, hops@ or board@madisongayhockey.org.

Sign Up for 9/24 - Goalie and L3 Evaluations, L1 and L2 Clinics

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Help Hockey Happen! Please update your Account.

ACTION – Update your Player Account page with which role option(s) you want to help hockey happen each year.

Note: Your selections are not publicly visible and what you click does NOT automatically mean you will be asked to take on the role. Your input will be used by operations folks to get roles filled more quickly.

But, why?

Each year, MGHA puts on a large-scale, volunteer-operated season.

We have about 200 ice times, 130 games and over 250 players. We need ~40 captains, ~40 coaches and 520 scorebox shifts covered

With more MGHAing to do than ever before, we’re asking all players how they want to help hockey happen. Kindly read through each hockey-oriented role’s key responsibilities and reminders to decide how you can to help our MGHA mission and community thrive!

Captain Responsibilities:

  1. Select subs to balance gameplay by filling roster gaps.
  2. Lead team communication during pre- and post- game locker room time, period breaks, team emails/chat groups, and regular pass-down info from league-wide announcements.
  3. Set lines and strategy, requesting support from coaches as needed.

Coach Responsibilities:

  • Support Captains and be a second set of eyes so they can be present as skaters. As requested, share tips/tricks/notes at period breaks and in the locker room. Converse with players on the bench and be open to questions.
  • Coach to team- and player-specific goals by observing play, noticing patterns, and celebrating small and big wins that demonstrate progress.
  • Share hockey knowledge and be able to explain position-based strategy. Explain and show techniques, lead with why it matters.

These following roles require ZERO hockey skill. If you didn’t sign up for one above, please select at least one of these when filling out your /account page.

  • Evaluations Helper: Work a shift at evaluations skills station, instruct players on what skill to perform, hold a clipboard and write down the result. That’s it!
  • Scorebox Leader: Use your experience with score box and stats to guide and educate newer folks others.
  • Scorebox Support Staff: Show up to the score box on time, learn and perform hands-on tasks; keep time, update score, track shots on goal, play music, get pucks where they need to be, submit stats to website.

Thanks!

Official 2023-2024 MGHA Season Ice Schedule

It’s here! The Official MGHA 2023-2024 Ice Time Schedule for the year:

Preseason

SEPTEMBER

10th: New-to-MGHA Orientation

17th: New Player Skills, Returning Player Scrimmages

24th: Prospective L3 and Goalie Evaluations, Skills Clinics

OCTOBER

1st: L1 and L2 Evaluations

8th: Makeup Evaluations, Scrimmages

15th: Team Reveal, Scrimmages

22nd and 29th: Team Practices

Regular Season

NOVEMBER

5th: Team Games

12th: Team Games

19th: Team Games

26th: Thanksgiving Scrimmages

DECEMBER

3rd: L1 Practice, L2 and L3 Team Games

10th: Team Games

17th: Team Games

24th and 31st: BREAK for the Holigays

JANUARY

7th: Team Games

14th: BREAK – no games due to Madison Capitols tournament.

21st: L1 Practice, L2 and L3 Team Games

28th: Team Games

FEBRUARY

4th: Team Games (delayed start times for Madison Capitols tournament)

11th: Super Bowl Scrimmages

18th: Team Games

25th: L1 Practice, L2 and L3 Team Games

MARCH

3rd: BREAK – no games due to Madison Capitols tournament.

10th: Team Games

17th: Team Games

24th: Championship Night Team Games


Who’s behind all this?

Tim T. (backed up by Avery C.) actively manages this schedule with Tyler at Capitol Ice. Ice times are budgeted and approved by the MGHA Board of Directors.

When ice time changes, affected players will be directly notified ASAP while the website and calendar will be updated passively.

Notice a website or calendar issue?

If you’ve added our MGHA calendar to your personal calendar AND you notice any issues or differences between the two tools, remove the calendar and re-sync it. If that doesn’t work, reach out to the website@ listserv and share what’s wrong.

Have schedule questions or comments?

Contact Hockey Operations leaders specifically or the bigger group using the hockey-ops@ listserv.

  • Christina L. for captain, coach, volunteer wrangling.
  • Tim T. for rink scheduling.
  • Gabby G. (also on the Board of Directors) for evaluations and skill development.

2023 MGHA Preseason – Sept 17th Sign Up

Reminder: To sign up, you must have this year’s USA Hockey # on your profile. Learn how to register and update your profile on this here post.


NEW PLAYER SCHEDULE:

4:00 PM Gear Up in the Locker Room

  • Mentors can join new skaters to support (their first!) proper gear fitting.

4:30 PM On-Ice Skills, Rink B, Leaders: Mark N, Ted J

  • All New-to-MGHA Players are welcome
  • These drills will train basic skills, designed for those new to skating or hockey.

5:40 PM On-Ice Skills, Rink B

  • These drills will train basic skills, regardless of your ice skating or hockey experience. 
  • Leaders: Mark N, Ted J

7:00 PM New Player Orientation (off-ice), Leaders: Amanda T, Kriona H, Mark N.

  • If you cannot attend either orientation (9/10 or 9/17), please check in with your mentor to get a recap.

RETURNING PLAYER SCHEDULE:

Please only sign up for one session below. If there are empty slots 48 hours prior to the event, we will allow signing up for multiple sessions.

5:00 PM L2 Returning Player Scrimmage, Rink A

6:10 PM L2/L3 Small Space Drills, Rink A

  • Limited to 60 skaters and 8 goalies for coaching and space constraints
  • Example drill: turn net to corner, everyone is the goalie’s enemy (4 goalies, 4 nets, 7 on a side, 14 skaters in each corner)
  • Designed by: Gabby G
  • Leaders: Avery C, Emily F, and 1 TBD (contact Gabby to help)

6:50 PM L1 Returning Player Scrimmage, Rink B

7:20 PM L3 Returning Player Scrimmage, Rink A

Scrimmage Reminder: If you have 3 or 4 goalies sign up to scrimmage, please work together to share time in net equitably and safely.


Need help?

  • If you have issues with the signups, please contact the website@ email listserv.
  • If you have questions about which sessions to sign up for, check with your mentor, hockey operations (hops@) or the board (board@madisongayhockey.org).

Sign Up for 9/17 - Preseason

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2023 MGHA Preseason – Sept 10th Sign Up

Important: To sign up, you must have this year’s USA Hockey # on your profile. Learn how to register and update your profile on this here post.

NEW PLAYER SCHEDULE:

3:00 PM New Player Orientation (off-ice), Leaders: Amanda T, Kriona H, Mark N.

  • If you cannot attend either orientation (9/10 or 9/17), please check in with your mentor to get a recap.

4:00 PM Gear Up in the Locker Room

  • Mentors can join new skaters to support (their first!) proper gear fitting.

4:30 PM On-Ice Skills, Rink B, Leaders: Mark N and Ted J

  • New to skating or hockey? Pick this session!
  • These drills will train basic skills – which most of our new folks are beginners to skating or hockey.
  • All new-to-MGHA skaters are welcome to this session, though we strongly encourage new-to-skating players to join this session. 

5:40 PM On-Ice Skills, Rink B

  • These drills will train basic skills, regardless of your ice skating or hockey experience. 
  • Leaders: Mark N, Ted J

Need help?

  • If you have issues with the signups, please contact the website@ email listserv.
  • If you have questions about which sessions to sign up for, check in with your mentor, hockey operations (hops@) or the board (board@madisongayhockey.org).

New Player Sign Up for 9/10 - Preseason

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USA Hockey Registration

Hi all!

Friendly reminder from your registrar that last year’s USA Hockey numbers have recently expired.  With preseason starting soon, now is the time to go sign up for this year’sYou must have a current USA Hockey registration submitted to us before you skate with us.

Also, a reminder that you can enter your registration number directly into your account on the website (see below, red/first box).  This makes my job as registrar much easier, so I definitely encourage that, but registrations and questions can still come to me via registrar@madisongayhockey.org.
And if you have yet to put in a preference for league level this season (see below, yellow/second box), please do that while you’re there!

Thanks,
Bront

MGHA Gear Swap – 8/29 at 6pm

The annual gear swap is scheduled for Tuesday, August 29th from 6-7:30pm at Capitol Ice Arena.

Are you a new player who needs gear? Bring your mentor, try on some gear, and take some new equipment home with you. If your mentor is busy, that’s OK! There will be plenty of folks around who can give advice.

Are you an existing player who has gear to donate? Bring it around 6pm and drop it off, or coordinate with someone you know who will be going to take it on your behalf.

Check out the Facebook invite.

Update your league preference

Friendly reminder to update your league preference for this season:

https://www.madisongayhockey.org/account/

We’re looking to expand from 16 teams to 18 teams, and we need to know where everyone wants to play in order to determine where to put those 2 new teams. We’re thinking L1, but we need feedback from the league to make a call.

L1 is for beginners and low intermediate players. Expect to learn and practice basic ice skating, hockey rules and strategy at a slower pace. This level includes coaching and extra skills clinics throughout the season. Higher level players can play in this level and will have restrictions such as strict goal caps.

L2 is for intermediate players who are able to skate safely during faster play. Expect to use and develop skills with your team. This level may include coaching, at your captain’s discretion and coaches’ availability. Higher level players can play in this level and will be goal-capped.

L3 is for intermediate and advanced players looking for SAFE fast-paced competition. Expect to develop strategies with your team, learn how to safely challenge yourself and others, and absolutely NO show-boating or unnecessary contact. This level may include coaching, at your captain’s discretion and coaches’ availability.

2023-2024 League Deposit Open

Deposits for the 2023-2024 season are open!

The deposit secures your spot in the league for the upcoming season. The full cost of the season will be $365 ($100 deposit, remaining $265 due before you set foot on the ice). The cost of ice is going up some, but not as much as we expected. We had unexpected costs with refs last season and we’re trying to budget for that.

As always: cost should not be a barrier to playing hockey with us! If it is, reach out – we have a financial aid program to help make the cost of playing hockey easier. If you want to play with us but need some time to figure out the finances, that’s fine! Let us know and we’ll hold your spot in the league.

Excited to play hockey with you all!

-Kriona, on behalf of the MGHA Board

New! New Members and 2023-2024 Board of Directors

We are happy to announce we’ve voted in 18 new members and elected 7 members to the Board of Directors.

New MGHA Members

Alex Krajek
Anna Johnson
Bailey Link
Breanne Cyr
Brecken Albrecht
Colleen Kenney
Doug Lowe
Elliot Lex
Erica Fry
FL Morris
Jacob Hale
Logan Anderson
Mary Schroeder
Matthew Greene
Mo Cormier
Peyton Higgins
Silver Basten
Stefania Cartoni Casamitjana

Newly Elected 2023-2024 Board of Directors

Avery Cordingley
Brett Rojec
Gene Zadzilka
Greta Landis
Gabby Grandin
Kriona Hagen
Matthew Greene


Thank you to everyone who made this year possible – it was filled with new faces, new levels, new experiences, and a whole lot of love put into the community on every level.

See you on the ice!

Christina Libs, she/her, [outgoing] 2022-23 Board Secretary